Atomic agencies scrutinize Seabrook Station

SEABROOK — Ten months after the International Atomic Energy Agency's Operating Safety Review Team spent more than two weeks reviewing Seabrook Station operations, its report has been released by plant officials. The conclusions are a mix of positive remarks and criticisms in areas such as training and equipment.

Comment

By Shir Haberman

seacoastonline.com

By Shir Haberman

Posted Apr. 20, 2012 at 2:00 AM

By Shir Haberman

Posted Apr. 20, 2012 at 2:00 AM

HEARINGs

Monday, April 23: To follow a meeting on concrete degradation in safety structures at Seabrook Station by phone from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., call (800) 857-9776 (use passcode 7212392#). The meeting will...

» Read more

X

HEARINGs

Monday, April 23: To follow a meeting on concrete degradation in safety structures at Seabrook Station by phone from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., call (800) 857-9776 (use passcode 7212392#). The meeting will be at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission office in Bethesda, Md.

Thursday, April 26: Public hearing from 6 to 8 p.m. at the One Liberty Lane Conference Center in Hampton. The NRC will meet with the public to discuss its 2011 assessment of Seabrook Station's 2011 safety performance. For details, call Arthur Burritt, chief of the NRC projects branch, at (610) 337-5069 or e-mail arthur.burritt@nrc.gov.

» Social News

SEABROOK — Ten months after the International Atomic Energy Agency's Operating Safety Review Team spent more than two weeks reviewing Seabrook Station operations, its report has been released by plant officials. The conclusions are a mix of positive remarks and criticisms in areas such as training and equipment.

The OSART report states managers of the plant "are committed to improving the operational safety and reliability of their plant." While the report commended their work in a number of areas, such as the development of a healthy reporting structure, the learning system used to qualify operators and methods used to monitor contractors on site, it also noted problems.

Specifically, OSART inspectors found the operation and ownership of the plant "is not being undertaken at a sufficiently high standard in the ... areas (of) the reporting of some perceived abnormalities, the control of access to systems and equipment (and) housekeeping."

In addition, "in some cases, the plant demonstrates a lack of aggressive and proactive resolution on long-term issues," and "the plant is experiencing material condition deterioration and degraded equipment conditions," the report concluded. The last item referred primarily to the deterioration of plant structures as a result of alkali-silica reaction, a condition that results from the interaction of groundwater with the concrete used to build certain below-grade structures, including the containment building.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled to meet with representatives of NextEra Energy, which operates the Seabrook plant, on Monday, April 23, in Bethesda, Md., to discuss the plans for mitigating ASR as part of NextEra's application to extend the plant's operating license another 20 years until 2050.

"Groundwater seepage issues affecting different areas of the plant have occurred since shortly after construction of the plant and have been present ever since," the OSART report indicated. "The ASR phenomenon was known at the time of construction and assessed, but no ASR was found (and) the ASR risk was not re-assessed before the relicensing process."

The report stated that core borings performed in 2010 identified the presence of ASR in some locations ... (but) "earlier concrete boring activities could have led to the discovery of this phenomenon sooner."

The international inspectors also found a backlog of work orders at the plant (more than 2,900 with 110 listed as "critical"), requests for corrective action (921) and procedure change requests (1,165).

The simulators used to train plant operators on how to respond to emergencies "in some cases, do not reflect the status of the plant (in order) to effectively train operations crews in some accident conditions," the report indicated. In addition, inspectors found a deterioration in the condition of firefighting equipment and "deficiencies in the control of combustibles" at the plant.

Lack of control of the keys needed to access "controlled areas" of the plant was noted in the report, as well as problems with internal procedures around the internal monitoring of radioactivity.

"The plant radiological administrative limits, use of performance indicators and health surveillance are not aligned with the international standards" and "radiological control and supervision of activities as regard radiological conditions in the plant are not fully effective," inspectors wrote.

They also noted "there is evidence that the plant carries out specific safety reviews as per national regulation requirements, but these safety reviews are generally not consistent with the full scope of a periodic safety review and do not always take into account improvements in safety standards and operating practices and the cumulative effects of plant aging."

The IAEA plans to send another team to Seabrook in 18 months to review what progress management has made in addressing these and other problem areas noted in the report.